Auckland's dominant realtor Barfoot & Thompson has reported good sales levels in December to end the year. 911 properties were sold by them in the month, above the 865 average for the past ten years, but well below the 1479 sold in December 2020.
Their median sales price was $1,235,000, a slight -$5000 lower than for November.
Buyers do not seem deterred by these high prices - 255 of the 911 December transactions (28%) were for properties that sold for more than $2 mln.
Barfoot's Peter Thompson said that "the market took news of rising interest rates, tighter bank lending criteria and changes to investor taxation restrictions in its stride, with strong buyer interest right up to Christmas Eve."
This caps a year where Auckland's residential property market seemed to be immune to the pandemic. Barfoots sold 13,429 properties in the year, +12% more than in calendar 2020, which in turn was +28% higher than in 2019. Lockdowns and closed borders have proven friendly to these real estate churn markets.
That churn, aided by low interest rates, had an even more dramatic effect on selling prices. Median prices achieved by Barfoots rose from being flat in 2019 from 2018, to up +16% in 2020, and up another +23% in 2021. The liquidity gifts from the RBNZ and Treasury meant that it was hard to fail as a real estate agent.
But not all of Barfoot's listings sold. In fact, 5744 of them didn't, an average monthly drop-out rate of 14%.
| Listings at start |
New listings |
Sales | Dropped out |
Listings at end |
Drop-out rate |
|
| 31-Dec-20 | 2,938 | |||||
| Jan-21 | 2,938 | 1,378 | 1,086 | 99 | 3,131 | 3.4% |
| Feb-21 | 3,131 | 1,941 | 1,124 | 532 | 3,416 | 17.0% |
| Mar-21 | 3,416 | 2,138 | 1,844 | 316 | 3,394 | 9.3% |
| Apr-21 | 3,394 | 1,675 | 1,107 | 627 | 3,335 | 18.5% |
| May-21 | 3,335 | 1,502 | 1,197 | 518 | 3,122 | 15.5% |
| Jun-21 | 3,122 | 1,485 | 1,243 | 500 | 2,864 | 16.0% |
| Jul-21 | 2,864 | 1,349 | 1,235 | 349 | 2,629 | 12.2% |
| Aug-21 | 2,629 | 1,258 | 1,020 | 266 | 2,601 | 10.1% |
| Sep-21 | 2,601 | 977 | 666 | 185 | 2,727 | 7.1% |
| Oct-21 | 2,727 | 2,012 | 814 | 884 | 3,041 | 32.4% |
| Nov-21 | 3,041 | 2,724 | 1,182 | 650 | 3,933 | 21.4% |
| Dec-21 | 3,933 | 948 | 911 | 324 | 3,646 | 8.2% |
That drop-out rate was marginally higher than the 13% in 2020 and 2019.
The listing drought is also fading, although Barfoots starts 2022 with 3646 available listings, up sharply from 2020 but well below the 4194 at the start of 2019.
There are about 590,000 dwellings in Auckland, based in Auckland Council 2018 estimates, and updated with subsequent building completion certificate data. In 2021 about 33,000 dwellings will change hands in this churn. That is just a 5.6% selling rate, small, but it is these few transactions that set the overall market 'price' levels.
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